2016 polls: EC slashes polling stations by 1000

The Electoral Commission has reviewed its decision to create 30,000 polling stations for the 2016 elections.

The EC, will instead create 29,000 stations for next year’s presidential and parliamentary polls, Starr News has learnt.

The decision follows the slash of the EC’s elections budget by parliament.

The Commission presented a budget of GHC1.1 billion and an additional 100 million for administrative purposes but the amount failed to sail through. The budget was slashed by over GHC400 million.

The decision to create more polling stations was to reduce pressure and long queues during the elections.

It was also to prevent the biometric verification devices (BVDs) from being over worked.

Sources, however, say the decision to cut the budget was informed by government’s resolve not to exceed GHC800 million for next year’s polls.

Speaking at an Inter-party Advisory Committee meeting today chairperson for Ghana’s electoral commission Charlotte Osei said the decision to slash the polling centers is to enable it work within the limited budget. She said they will nonetheless open new offices in all the newly created constituencies before the polls.

According to Starr News sources, the commission is also considering other alternative sources of funding in order to ensure a free and fair elections next year.

The EC has also submitted guidelines for limited registration exercise to the political parties. The parties are to study the guidelines and make inputs.

The commission was forced to suspend a planned limited registration exercise as a result of concerns from political parties over lack of clear cut guidelines for the exercise.
Speaking to Starr News after the IPAC meeting, a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party O.B Amoah said the parties will submit their inputs soon.

“What we agreed was for the EC to bring guidelines as to how it will go about the limited registration exercise. They submitted the guidelines the other time. They wanted the parties to make their inputs. They’ve extended the time that by the next IPAC meeting or the middle of January, parties should have submitted their responses to the guidelines for the limited registration exercise.”